The present invention generally relates to the construction of finely crafted wooden objects, such as musical instruments, cutlery and curios, in which the wooden object includes an inlay portion for ornamentation or functional purpose, such as inlay which forms an ornamental border adjacent to the outside edges of an instrument. An inlay is a material set within a depression or channel formed in a matrix material where, once installed, the top surface of the inlay is generally flush with the surface of the matrix material. Although many different materials may be utilized as the inlay material, organic shell materials such as abalone, oyster and snail have been found to be particularly suitable as inlay material because of the lustrous and luminescent appearance of these materials. The material traditionally used for musical instruments, such as steel-string guitars, is abalone, a shell of the mollusk family, which has attractive patterns and can reflect many different colors. Pure shell material is often referred to slab. It is cut straight from the curved inside surface of the shell and then sanded flat to uniform thickness, such as 0.050″. Because the pieces are cut from the curved surface of the shell, the pieces are often sawn into odd and irregular shaped pieces, referred to as “blanks”.
As recognized in U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,581 (Sifel et al.), the use of these organic shell materials for inlay purposes is problematic because of the difficulty in obtaining shell pieces of sufficient thickness. Sifel discloses a organic shell inlay blank which may be utilized as a substitute for the shell fragments utilized by the prior art. Sifel's inlay blank comprises overlapping flexible layers of organic shell material with a bonding agent disposed between the layers. Sifel's blank is referred to by those skilled in the art as ABALAM or Ablam (hereinafter collectively referred to as ABALAM). This inlay material is made by laminating extremely thin sections of shell in such a way as to render the entire surface of the sheet with beautiful, figured shell patterns. Unlike natural shell slab pieces which have a varying surface area and depth, ABALAM is perfectly flat and easier to saw into delicate patterns because of the homogeneous nature of the laminations. ABALAM is frequently preferred when large pieces of inlay material are required.
When applied as inlay materials for musical instruments, ABALAM blanks are typically sawn or cut into thin strips of uniform width (usually about 0.040-0.060″ wide). These strips may be utilized for a variety of purposes, including fashioning purfling and the rosette of the instrument. “Purfling” (sometimes spelled “perfling”) is the term used for a decorative border. Purfling is commonly used in conjunction with the “binding”, which is seated at the outermost corner of the instrument. The binding is fashioned from pieces of wood, plastic or fiber which are heated and then bent to fit around the curved edges of the instrument. The purflings are disposed between the binding and the adjacent edges formed by the top, sides, or back of the instrument. The binding serves to protect the edges of the instrument from impacts which might otherwise initiate a crack in the top of the instrument. In contrast, the purfling is purely decorative.
The purfling, like the binding, generally follows the bends and curves of the instrument. The purling is placed in a channel preformed by the edge of the top (or sides or bottom) on one side and the edge of the binding on the other side. Once the purfling is placed within the channel, the top (or sides or bottom) of the instrument may be sanded or scraped such that the surface of the top is flush with the purfling, creating the decorative border.
When organic shell materials, such as mother-of-pearl or abalone, are used for purfling, it is often referred to as “shell purfling.” Various other materials, such as wood or wood fiber, may be utilized instead of place of the shell purfling, or in combination with the shell purfling, such that the outside edge of a musical instrument may have an outside border formed with wood fiber purfling and a border of shell purfling immediately adjacent to the wood fiber purfling. The result is a crisp, dark border formed by the wood fiber which accentuates the flashy or luminescent appearance of the shell. The wood purfling, sometimes referred to as “marquetry,” may comprise different colors, but is often alternating strips of light and dark material. The wood purfling may also come in different patterns, such as parallel lines or in a herringbone configuration. A frequently used and visually appealing configuration is a first border formed with a black-white-black wood purfling strip, an inner band of shell purfling, and a second border of black-white-black purfling strip, such that the shell purfling is sandwiched between the two wood purfling strips. It is to be appreciated that various materials may be utilized to simulate wood purfling, including not only wood, but wood fiber, plastic, and other materials. Further references to “wood purfling” should be understood to include simulated wood products.
The installation of shell purfling can be a time-consuming process. One of the limitations of the known shell purfling strips is that the strips are not flexible and cannot be bent in the same manner as the binding. The lack of flexibility is problematic when it is desired for the inlay to be curved, which is typically the case for purfling used on instruments. The purfling of a conventional acoustic guitar requires the inlay material to placed through or around many curves which have too tight of a radius for the shell strips to achieve without breaking. One known solution to this problem is to break the strips into very, very short individual pieces as it is being inlaid into the preformed channel, in a mosaic-like method. Once in the channel, even though each short piece is straight, the cumulative effect of utilizing the individual pieces is that the inlay strips follow the desired curve of the instrument or other work piece. However, this process is very time consuming and labor-intensive.
In another method, instead of breaking the inlay strips into small pieces, ABALAM blanks are milled by a computer numerically controlled (“CNC”) milling machine, or other computer controlled machine, such that the inlay strips fit exactly into the preformed channel formed by the edge of the top and the inside edge of the binding. In other words, each piece of the inlay is precisely cut to fit into a particular segment of the channel. In this method, a smaller number of pre-cut inlay pieces (such as 7 to 15 pieces) are necessary for the shell purfling. However, there are disadvantages associated with this method as well. The machinery required for this method is expensive, and the programming and milling time for each shape can require substantial time. The inventory requirements for the inlay material can also be difficult for smaller manufacturers, because different instrument models and configurations utilize different shapes of inlay material. This method also results in greater waste of shell material than the previously described method and the method disclosed herein.
Each of the processes described above is time consuming for another reason. Under the known methods, including the method disclosed herein, the channel for placement of the shell purfling and other purfling elements (including wood purfling) on a musical instrument is created by the edge of the binding on one side and the outside edge of the top. It should be understood that musical instruments may also include purfling on the bottom and sides of the instrument. Binding is also used at the joint of the sides of the instrument with the bottom. Therefore, references herein describing use of the disclosed purfling to ornament the top of an instrument should further be understood to also apply to the bottom and/or sides of the instrument. When the binding is glued along the sides of the instrument, strips of TEFLON (or other materials which will not be held by the glue such as polyethylene) are used as a temporary spacer for the space which will be occupied by the shell purfling, such that the wood purfling can be glued in place as the binding is installed. Once the glue has dried and adequately set up, the TEFLON strips are removed and the individual pieces of shell purfling are placed and glued into the channel. This process requires that the TEFLON be milled or cut to the size of the desired piece of shell purfling so the shell purfling will fit tightly into the portion of the channel vacated by the TEFLON.